Has anyone sacrificed master bedroom to the kids?

[mowmylawn]

We live in a rented 2BR terrace with a fabulous private landlord who is happy to let us do whatever we want to do to the property so that it fits our needs (within reason, but we are reasonable people). The master bedroom is pretty big, the second bedroom is a bit pokey.

Right now our DD age 2 is in the second bedroom and we are expecting a son in August. I've been mentally re-arranging the second room to accommodate a cot and a bed along with clothing storage etc but due to placement of window and radiator it's very, very difficult.

We don't want to move to a 3BR because we'll have to go through an agency and all of the crap that entails. We love our street and our neighbours. So we need to find a way to make this property work for us. I am considering swapping bedrooms with the kids when our DS is old enough to move into a room with his sister. Just wondering if anyone else has done this?

We did this with our HA property many years ago when we only had 'one of each' DC and actually partitioned it when they were 3 and 13 respectively. The master bedroom is approx 18' x 13' and has a bay window across one of the short ends, and the main entry door and radiator on the other.

A friend/neighbour with an identical shape house showed me the partition her DH had built, complete with Perspex 'windows' along the top for light and a folding door. A couple of weeks later I paid him to do mine. DS is in the unheated window half and is happy to use an oil filled rad on the rare occasions that he's not warm enough. DSS has the half that has less light but as long as we ensure windows and doors are opened for through ventilation, it works pretty well

We should have got a bigger property somewhere along the line but nothing came up that we liked as much, and the location is still brilliant for us

2 x DC share the biggest room. First with bunks, but now with singles and Billy bookcases across the middle to divide up the space.

DH and I share a perfectly adequate but much smaller double, and are really only in there for sleeping, dressing etc. The DC use theirs all the time for playing, homework etc so it makes sense.

Well it makes sense to give the bigger room to kids anyway considering all we do in it is sleep and bigger bedroom means you can bung all their toys in it as well.

Excellent, glad to see this wasn't such a crazy idea. I work from home so right now have a desk in the big bedroom but I work from the kitchen table most of the time as it is so that's not a deal-breaker. I love the idea of a partition - I would have never thought of that! Or even some kind of Ikea Trofast-as-Maginot Line up the middle of the room.

Only issue now will be for our neighbours, as the previous occupant of the house let the second room to a gentleman who liked to 'entertain' many many guests and our neighbours could hear it all from their bathroom (right on the other side of the second bedroom wall). DH says, well, we'll give them something to talk about!

We were considering doing this but DH not keen!

We still might divide up our big bedroom for the DC further down the line.

Oh yes. We have a 2 bed and our children share the big room. Why do we need it? We just go to sleep in it. Their room is their space. To play, to have their toys and games etc. Stops having the house overrun with stuff.

Before the kid(s) were born we stayed at a B&B with a really dinky room and the bed took up almost the whole space, and it was the soundest I'd slept in ages. I really fancy a small room with just a bed and a dresser so I think this will work out well actually!

We are thinking of doing this too. The dds still co-sleep with us, so we had the bigger room to fit in a big bed etc, but their room is too small for all their stuff, and the double bed in it takes up a lot of space. They never sleep in there either. We are thinking of maybe giving them our room, or our bigger but in the eaves attic, which DH has as an office as its out of the way of noise, and which is currently full of crap. I'm thinking that we need to completely re-jig the way we use our rooms to get our house more organised and more practical for all of us.